Row over women-only sleeping berths on trains; Men V Mumsnet!

Please dont leave That1950sMum.

But I would like you to answer the question about whether, even if you are happy to share with a transwoman, you can understand why other women might not want to?

I have been on the Caledonian Sleeper. It is poky beyond poky in the berths. It's basically bunkbeds with a bit more than shoulder width standing room alongside. I was with OH and we went first class which basically means we got a double berth (lower single bunk) each and the connecting door open (like in the pic) - that was still cramped.

There is nowhere to hide, nowhere to go (apart from the toilets which were down the corridor). I don't recall hearing any noise coming through from the adjoining berth throughout the night or even before we slept/after we woke up.

I would not feel safe being in one of those little berths with a male bodied stranger and I certainly wouldn't sleep well knowing that the door was locked with us behind it.

*What practical solution would you ask ScotRain to propose?
*
When making a booking a person should be asked whether they wish to share with a person of the same sex or if they have no preference.

No but being a violent man, putting on a dress, and using that as a way to access women only spaces does.

Wow. Some nastiness I hadn't expected. I wasn't trying to wind anyone up. I'll leave this thread.

I don't know how you could identify a 'genuine' trans woman but being trans does not make you any more or less likely to commit crime than non trans who are the same sex

I can see the issues with this and the concerns people have.

What practical solution would you ask ScotRail to propose?

I’m lucky never to have been raped or seriously sexually assaulted. So personally I wouldn’t necessarily be triggered by sharing a confined and intimate space with a genuine transwoman.

But I have enough empathy and human compassion to understand how many many women might be triggered and/or extremely uncomfortable or distressed or panicked by being required to share confined intimate space with a male-bodied person.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see why it’s important to have safe sexual-segregated spaces.

Maybe if men fixed their violence problem and stoped participating in a culture of hatred and abuse and exploitation of women, we wouldn’t need to keep them out of our spaces.

Wouldn't bother me to share with a trans woman.

Ah! You are right. Women - shut up. Thatmum has spoken

There's a second story at the end of that article:
Corbyn ally urges: 'Thump a feminist'
On an internet blog titled ‘Is it ever justified to thump Terfs?’ she said: ‘Considering Terfs want to exterminate all trans women from the planet any violence directed at Terfs by trans women or trans allies is very much a means of self-defence.'
Why is stuff like this published without question? When has anyone said they want to exterminate anyone? Anyone who didn't understand the issues might read that and think feminists were a bunch of genocidal loons.

Wouldn't bother me to share with a trans woman.

That's nice. Can you understand why some women wouldn't want to share with a trans woman?

That1950sMum
You OK with this transwoman? They'll be out in the community soon:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5549333/My-daughters-killer-not-released-shows-remorse-father-says.html

The number of comments from thick blokes saying "why aren't there men-only carriages?' is annoying.

Those berths look really nice!

Wouldn't bother me to share with a trans woman.

I can't believe it but I have joined bloody dm to post comments.

I tried to post one and then joined and I don't know if it has my comment in a queue to be moderated. Will redo it later if it's not there.

It strikes me - and it makes me sick to say this - that if we keep clicking on dm headlines about this issue, and encouraging other women to - perhaps dm will publish more articles so we can keep putting our view across.

So thanks suited for drawing my attention to it.